Puri, Apr 10: Today an expert team having the regional NHAI Director Dharmananda Sarangi and Project Director of Samajajpur railway over-bridge on Puri-Bhubaneswar national highway Binay Bansal reviewed the safety concerns of the bridge as stacked geosynthetic bags that guarded the wall of the bridge caught fire a few days back and were destroyed. The team paid a visit where the 50 m long retaining wall made of sand filled geosynthetic bags had caught fire. Sarangi stated to media that steps are being initiated to ensure a quick repair of the damaged wall and finish the pending works of the bridge before the Rath Yatra this year. On asking about the safety of the road he stated that the condition of the road is fine. As the soil was problematic it was treated but enough time was not given to settle it down. There is only a bit of deflection of the slab due to embankment but its neither crack nor any defect in condition of concretisation of the road is there. In the mean time, locals have alleged that the mis-allocation and mis-utilisation of funds in the project has led to the faults. Hence, inquiry must be made by the Union Government. Being a common man it’s believed that sandbags cannot lend support to a heavy overbridge for long. Chakradhar Mohapatra, a local resident stated to media.
